Pictures for Grandma

This is for my mom, who keeps telling me that she hasn't seen any new pictures lately - especially of Lydia. The trouble is, we keep doing picture-worthy things, I take Lydia's picture, but she usually just sleeping. So while Hannah looks very interesting and photogenic, we just have a million pictures of Lydia sleeping in her car seat or stroller or baby seat or swing. I guess that's just the way it is, huh? So, Grandma, (and everyone else), here's what we've got:


Last Saturday, we went downtown to Market Square. We spent most of our time at the fountain.


Nearby, there were some musicians playing. Hannah and I were ballroom dancing the day before (along with Beauty and the Beast), which inspired this move.

We also stopped to admire some truly beautiful flowers.

Through it all, Lydia never even opened her eyes...

This is our neighborhood Splash Pad, which is endlessly fun.

Lydia's hanging out in the shade with her friend who's a month older than she.

And I acutally remembered to ask Jonathan to take a picture of me!

We recently played at a friend's house. I posted this on facebook, but Hannah has watermelon in one hand, and leftover salami from her lunch in the other.

Here's Lydia. Asleep.

At another friend's house. (No salami this time.)

Lydia acutally made it out of the seat and onto Hannah's towel before she dozed off.

This was just too funny not to share!

And here's a "real" picture.

The prerequisite bath time shot.

I love this. Hannah was having her snack (and so was Dolly, it looks like), and she arranged her table and chair so that she could sit next to Lydia. This was completly fascinating to Lydia, who watched Hannah the whole time. Or maybe she was just wishing she could have some Cheetos.

Playing With Our Food

I am such a creature of habit. I'm the person who has the same bowl of Cheerios every morning, and the same turkey sandwich for lunch every afternoon. For 15 years. Jonathan is not like this at all. He likes to have a variety of cereals to choose from, and a new kind of lunch meat each week. (Navigating the deli counter has become his special chore at the grocery store.) Hannah, being two years old, tends toward the known and routine, which makes our lunches a pretty boring affair.

Hannah's typical lunch looks a lot like mine, but without the bread. She loves hard salami (a.k.a. spicy meat), and likes cheese in sliced or stringed variety. We always have a few carrots for crunch and to up our daily veggie intake. And we pile on lots of fruit - whatever's in season. One of the advantages of such a predictable lunch is that Hannah can make it herself...if someone will open the refrigerator door for her, that is.

But something possessed me this week to mix things up a little bit. Maybe it's all those back-to-school "make your lunch awesome" articles I've been seeing in women's magazines. I don't know. In any case, I decided to make Hannah's lunch into a butterfly. I didn't add any new or special ingredients. I didn't spend very much time cutting or slicing or chopping (although I did spend a few seconds doing this).

And then, after a few days of butterflies, I decided to see what else I could come up with. Introducing Mr. Salami Mouse!

And the next day, Hannah asked if she could have a rabbit lunch. In retrospect, I realize that she thought the mouse was a rabbit, but this is what I came up with.

So lunchtime has had a little shakeup around here, and we're all a little happier and more interesting for it. Hannah has even mastered the art of making her own butterfly lunch, and taught the art to Daddy. I can't wait to see what we come up with next!

Windows

We've been doing stuff with windows around the Warren house. Jonathan was in the Habitat for Humanity ReStore last week, and stumbled across these neat old windows, which he bought for $3 each.



Deciding exactly what to do with the windows has been a major occupation of ours this week, and we've spent many hours looking at windows on Pinterest. The main contenders are replacing the glass with mirrors, or using the window frame as a picture frame.

Actually, we're pretty sure that we'll only keep one of the windows, and the other will go for another project. If this project actualizes, I'll share some pictures after the fact.

I also stitched up some valances for our kitchen and dining room. The kitchen is painted blue and the dining room green, so this blue, green, and brown motif coordinates with both rooms beautifully. I only took pictures of the dining room curtain because the kitchen one still needs some fluffing/pleat arranging.

And of course, the moments I had to take pictures without a baby in my arms turned out to be very sunny, so sorry about the insane backlight. But you'll get the idea...

Fourth of July

Happy Independence Day! In honor of the holiday, we got out all of our red, white and blue and took some pictures in the back yard. Hannah and Lydia are wearing hair bows and sparkle tutus that Grammy made for them. The blanket has a story: my maternal grandma knitted it (I'm guessing it was around the bicentennial, don't you think?) and gave it to my paternal grandma. Last summer, Grandma gave it to me. We're off to have a fun day with friends, and hope you have a good holiday too.